Study shows that a medicine utilized by smokers to assist them in giving up their habit, raises the danger of heart attack and other severe heart related problems.

An international group evaluated the researches consisting of more than 8000 smokers and came across that more people taking Champix fell sick than those on dummy medicines.

The analysis, in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, shows that smokers need not use the medicine to stop.

But manufacturers Pfizer tell it is an “important option” to assist people in giving up.

Heart specialists are of the view that smoking is a major cause for danger of heart disease.

Champix (varenicline) made up to over 955,000 prescriptions in England last year.

It acts by decreasing desire but in the past it ahs been attributed to be the reason for depression and suicidal instincts.

‘Advantages vs. Danger’

This appraisal done by scientists at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in North Carolina, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Maryland, and the UK’s University of East Anglia, studied 14 researches about cardiovascular risk in people taking the medicine.

In all, of the 4,908 people taking Champix (known as Chantix in the US), 52 experienced serious cardiovascular problems such as heart attack or arrhythmia (abnormal heart rhythm) compared with 27 of the 3,308 taking dummy drugs.

The US Food and Drug Administration has already placed a warning on the drug’s information leaflet about the risk of suicidal thoughts and it recently added a second about additional cardiovascular risk to people who already have heart disease after looking at one study of 700 people.

Writing in the journal, the researchers said: “Clinicians should carefully balance the risk of serious cardiovascular events associated with varenicline use against the known benefits of the drug on smoking cessation.”

Dr Yoon Loke of the University of East Anglia, who worked on the review, agreed the numbers involved were small, but said that was likely to be because the studies looked at healthy people – and that the risk could be greater for smokers who already had heart problems.

He added: “There are lots of other options to help people stop smoking that don’t involve drugs.”

“Consult Your Doctor”

Doireann Maddock, a senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said: “Smoking is one of the major risk factors for heart disease.

“In fact, smokers double their risk of a heart attack compared with people who have never smoked, and quitting smoking is the single most important thing you can do to improve your heart health.”

She told that the result given by the research was “a concern”,  but also opined that more analysis was required prior to the results from the firm can be made.

“People using varenicline to help them to stop smoking should not stop using it because of this study alone but should chat to their GP about it and the options available.”

A presenter for Pfizer, which manufactures the medicine, said the company “disagreed with the interpretation of the data” in the research, which it told possessed “limitations”.

He added: “Champix is an important treatment option for smokers who want to quit. Patients should consult with their healthcare providers to determine what medications are right for them.”

The Medicines Health care products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), which supervises the protection of drugs used in the UK, tells it got 306 reports of unfavorable reaction from medicines associated to heart risks from the time medicine was launched in 2006 – with deaths in 17 instances.

However, it said that these reports did not establish a connection to the medicine, and other original causes can be there.